The Influence of Precipitation, Runoff, and Temperature on Water Collection Labor in sub-Saharan Africa, 1990-2022.

Collecting water in rural sub-Saharan Africa is primarily performed by women. Climate change may affect water resources, damage infrastructure, and limit availability of water for collection. These changes could affect large numbers of rural households and the amount of time they spend collecting water. This study uses national surveys to assess associations between precipitation, surface runoff, and temperature on water collection labor over a 32-year period in rural sub-Saharan Africa. Our outcome was two-way water collection time. Weather data were sourced from ERA5-Land. Information about water source, primary person who collects water, socio-economic status (SES), and Koppen-Geiger climate zone were recorded for each household. The source population included 1,759,230 households from 183 surveys between 1990 and 2022. The study population included 781,761 rural households that had known water collection times. Among households where the person responsible for collecting water was reported, the greatest number of individuals were adult women (n = 121,777, 70.9%). We utilized multi-level linear regression models with a log-transformed outcome for our analyses. A one-centimeter seven-day cumulative increase in precipitation, and a one-centimeter seven-day cumulative increase in surface runoff, was associated with a 1% reduction in water collection time, while a one-degree Celsius seven-day average increase in temperature was associated with a 2% increase in water collection time. This study shows that precipitation, surface runoff, and temperature have statistically significant associations with water collection time, although the effect size is small. Further research will need to take a more directed approach to climate change and water collection labor to measure how regional changes to the climate will influence water collection labor. These studies can be used by stakeholders to target infrastructure improvements that would help to alleviate the burden of water collection on rural women and their families as local weather patterns are influenced by climate change.